Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Complete eBook

mutual esteem and love. Those of the master are
full of fatherly affection and advice, those of the
pupil full of filial devotion and reverence.
Allusions to and messages for Elsner are very frequent
in Chopin’s letters. He seems always anxious
that his old master should know how he fared, especially
hear of his success. His sentiments regarding
Elsner reveal themselves perhaps nowhere more strikingly
than in an incidental remark which escapes him when
writing to his friend Woyciechowski. Speaking
of a new acquaintance he has made, he says, “He
is a great friend of Elsner’s, which in my estimation
means much.” No doubt Chopin looked up
with more respect and thought himself more indebted
to Elsner than to Zywny; but that he had a good opinion
of both his masters is evident from his pithy reply
to the Viennese gentleman who told him that people
were astonished at his having learned all he knew
at Warsaw: “From Messrs. Zywny and Elsner
even the greatest ass must learn something.”

Frederick, who up to the age of fifteen was taught
at home along with his father’s boarders, became
in 1824 a pupil of the Warsaw Lyceum, a kind of high-school,
the curriculum of which comprised Latin, Greek, modern
languages, mathematics, history, &c. His education
was so far advanced that he could at once enter the
fourth class, and the liveliness of his parts, combined
with application to work, enabled him to distinguish
himself in the following years as a student and to
carry off twice a prize. Polish history and literature
are said to have been his favourite studies.

Liszt relates that Chopin was placed at an early age
in one of the first colleges of Warsaw, “thanks
to the generous and intelligent protection which Prince
Anton Radziwill always bestowed upon the arts and
upon young men of talent.” This statement,
however, has met with a direct denial on the part of
the Chopin family, and may, therefore, be considered
as disposed of. But even without such a denial
the statement would appear suspicious to all but those
unacquainted with Nicholas Chopin’s position.
Surely he must have been able to pay for his son’s
schooling! Moreover, one would think that, as
a professor at the Lyceum, he might even have got